wealth is a purely artificial concept adopted to make it possible for goods or services to be exchanged

No, that's money, which isn't the same thing.

Actually when we say "discrimination is wrong" we are using a sort of shorthand, because in certain context of course it is perfectly right and necessary to discriminate - food, clothes, music. Some word such as "unfair" is implied or some phrase such as "on the basis of etc" - and quite what is icluded in that "etc" is the important thing, on which quarrels and even wars have been founded.

I would say that to discriminate on the basis of wealth or poverty is totally wrong (and that has certain implications for how society should be organised); I take it that Doug would see that kind of discrimination as acceptable. Tbe reality is that in both our societies there is an enormous amount of discrimination on the basis of wealth and poverty. If anything it is growing almost exponentially.

There had been a kind of consensus that there should be some limit on this, but this seems to be fading away. We appear to be heading into some kind of quasi-Roman epoch, and I see this as a nightmare.